EvCC’s Health Science and Public Safety division spent $10,000 on new equipment for the weight room.

With the money, EvCC bought Olympic lifting platforms, lifting cages, new weight lifting benches, bumper plates, bumper plate holders, new kettlebells, multi-grip pull up bars, slam balls, wall balls, and landmine attachments for barbells making it easier for athletes to have a better lifting session.

Melissa Uftring, the department chair of exercise science, who is the brains behind this idea of getting new equipment, said she is trying to set up the weight room to be useful for students, faculty, alumni, and athletes. 

The machines in the weight room are more so for novice weightlifters or someone that is just starting weight lifting, not for athletes or serious weightlifters and that was the whole point in bringing in the free weights. In order to make room for the new equipment, the very few treadmills in the weight room had to move to the second floor where the rest of the cardio equipment has been.

The equipment came in two shipments. The first came in over winter break. This shipment included the lifting platforms, new barbells, kettlebells, slam balls, and landmine attachments for the barbells. The second delivery came on Friday, January 18th. That shipment included bumper plate holders and three big lifting cages.

All the equipment comes from a local warehouse distributor right here in Everett, called PR Lifting, which cuts the price down massively. In order to do a comparison and show the college how much they would be saving by using a local manufacturer, Uftring got quotes from other big names and showed that it was massively cheaper.

“It’s really nice because we are working with our local community and local business, supporting small business.” A big factor that saved the college money was the fact that the big name company they were looking at had warehouses in California and Texas. This would’ve meant EvCC would’ve paid to ship on top on the prices for all of the equipment.

Uftring said, “I do plan to gradually, if we can get more money in the future, keep adding and updating.”  

“I tried for a year to get money from different places on campus,” she continued. “I actually asked for $20,000 and got half of what I asked for. So I do still have other plans and things I’d like to do, but I’m really happy we got at least half of what I asked for.”